The Era of Paid Banner Ads Has Begun

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

Not that it should matter one way or the other, but for those concerned about the content of the board changing once there were paid banner ads on it, it appears that era has begun. If this is not true, Leon, please correct as appropriate.

I only assume this because it looks like the free banner ads have been taken down, correct? Thanks for allowing the freebies for a while. It was good while it lasted. I can't say for sure, but probably speak for the others in addition to myself when I express gratitude for putting those on the site for the past month. I think most understand this board reaches a larger number of collectors than we might first think.

I really don't think there's been a negative impact on the board as a result of the free banner ads and don't think that will change now that they're paid for. In fact, I actually think the site looks better with them on it and wouldn't mind if they were a tad larger.

For those who are curious, in a 10-minute experiment of hitting reload over and over here are the results, which is also presumably a list of paying advertisers, listed in order of which ads came up the most:

Man on The Rock: 27
Sotheby's/SCP: 24
Mile High: 19
Huggins & Scott: 19
Goodwin: 19
Mastronet: 18
GAI: 18
SCGaynor: 14
SGC: 12

Those numbers are totally random and would probably be very different in any 10-minute period.

Thanks again Leon and Brian,

-Ryan

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

The sky is falling
The sky is falling

Hmm....we're all still arguing about restoration, so things must be okay.....

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Posted By: barrysloate

And thank you Leon for the free ad. I was happy to be among the first group listed, and it fortunately coincided with my auction.

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Posted By: leon

Starting about a week ago I contacted advertisers about the paid advertising going forth on Jan 1, 2007. Several of the trial advertisers were doing me a favor by allowing the test. I appreciate that and am thankful. I think it was positive for all parties. Some of the trial companies said they wanted to continue and several other, non trial companies, had contacted me asking about it. For the ones that committed to doing it I went ahead and put theirs up now, as a gesture of gratitude. I should have told ya'll before hand so my apologies for that. If I am not mistaking there were auctions running at the start of the trial ads and I hope it benefited those auctions in some way. I would guess they did as they were supposed to do. There will be 8 ads rotating for the next 6 months, on the front page, and all spots are taken though one is unconfirmed. There will be a 9th one every now and then when there is a "monthly" open slot filled. There will be advertising on the BST pages just like the front page but the specifics on it aren't firm yet. I am in negotiations with a few companies for that area. I feel the trial period was successful in that everyone pretty much spoke their mind regardless of a company advertising or not. I am sure it will continue...regards

ps...for the record SCGaynor, although a good friend, has not committed and I knew he was only doing the trial as a favor to me.. ...the rest of the above (in 1st post) companies have committed, though of course things can always change........